


Chapter Three

by brunchywrites



Series: I Once Read... [3]
Category: DCU
Genre: Batfamily Feels, Gen, Jason Todd is Robin, Scarecrow's Fear Toxin (DCU), also some sweet bonding, bruce is just.. a dad okay listen, it makes a weak apperance, jason lets bruce see a part of his life winky fac
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 21:28:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18352058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brunchywrites/pseuds/brunchywrites
Summary: Bruce recalls the time Jason was scared for his life and the first time Jason called him "dad"





	Chapter Three

“Stop following me!” Jason was screaming, running around the Cave like Bruce was trying to kill him. 

Patrol had been too eventful, they were ambushed with fear toxin and whereas Bruce had an antidote in his utility belt, catching Jason to give him the second dose was a nightmare in of itself. Bruce had no idea what his poor son was seeing, and he had to approach carefully.

He’d already taken the cowl off, keeping his hands up in Jason’s line of sight, the syringe was tucked in his glove, ready to go once he got close enough. 

Getting Jason into the car had been a challenge, and the only way Bruce did it was restraining the boy’s arms and legs. He hated it, hated binding him, but Jason was thrashing around so much that it posed a dangerous threat not to Bruce but to himself. It was too risky to have him just in a seatbelt.

Bruce had assumed that Jason calmed down, he was silent in the car, silent when Bruce set him in the computer chair and untied his restraints. Bruce wondered if he had fought off a majority of the toxin with his meditation techniques.

Jason had been silent until Bruce took the syringe out, and then all hell broke loose. 

“It’s just me, Jay, it’s okay,” he kept his voice down, tried to sound soothing. The words rolled over his tongue like gravel and Jason’s hands clenched into tight fists. Jason was two years into being Robin and he knew how to get away when he needed too. 

Bruce wished he could see whatever was terrorizing him, wished he could soothe him and run his fingers through his hair and tell him it was going to be okay. 

But Jason was smaller, as fast as a bullet, and kept his distance. A voice in the back of Bruce’s head said If only he was like this on patrol but Bruce smothered that voice in ice water and waited. 

“Jason, it’s just me. It’s Bruce, you were hit with fear toxin. I need to administer the antidote-” 

“No! Leave me alone, I won’t take your fucking drugs!” 

“Jay, it’s okay. It won’t hurt you,” Bruce took one step forward and Jason took a step back, cornering himself. 

This wasn’t going to end well, Bruce could see a dozen different outcomes and he had to make a choice. If he acted fast he could hold Jason down and administer the antidote, and Jason would fight for dear life and that thought broke his heart into a hundred little pieces.

What was his son seeing? He wanted to ask, and he did. 

“What do you see right now?” Bruce took another step forward and Jason flattened himself against the wall, putting an arm over his head. Jason shook like a leaf clinging for life in winter, full bodied, and violent. 

“Jay?” He asked again, quieter this time, “What are you seeing right now? You can talk to me, I won’t hurt you.” 

“Liar,” Jason snarled, “You’re in jail you’re- you’re.. Not real.. You’re not real!” 

“Who am I?” Bruce asked, taking another step forward, he was close enough that he could reach for Jason and hold him while he got the antidote into his system. He finally had an idea to what Jason was seeing now, and it broke those million pieces into a billion smaller ones. Willis Todd had better be glad that he was thrown in jail before Bruce found him. 

Damn. Glad. 

“.. You’re,” Jason started slowly and Bruce had to use that moment of weakness. 

In two quick movements he pulled Jason into his arms, and injected him with the antidote. He tried to hold him close to his chest but Jason violently thrashed. Bruce could feel how hard his heart was hammering in his chest. 

“Let me go! Let me go! Fuck you!” Jason hit him and Bruce let him before grabbing his wrists. 

“Jason, it’s okay. It’s me, look at me.” 

Jason sucked in a deep breath, gathering himself before looking up. He had the world’s biggest scowl on his face and he looked angry at everything around him. 

Then his gaze softened, and those pretty hazel eyes went soft and Jason pressed further into Bruce than he had before. 

Bruce held him close to his chest, brought a hand behind his head to hold him, “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he repeated like a mantra. 

Jason shook violently in his arms, pressing his face flush against Bruce’s chest. He could feel the front of his kevlar suit getting wet and Bruce slowly kneeled to the floor. Jason crawled into his lap, arms reaching around him for dear life. 

“I’m here, Jay, I’m here.” 

“I’m sorry,” Jason hiccuped. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” 

By the fourth sorry Bruce had hushed him, cradling him in his arms and kissing his little forehead. 

“You’re alright,” he said again, trailing off into a soft hum, “You’re safe.” 

And he was. Back then Jason was safe, and in Bruce’s arms. 

Eventually Bruce had picked Jason up and taken him back to his bedroom, he helped him change into Pajamas and he sat on the edge of Jason’s bed until Jason fell asleep. If Bruce had a say in the matter, nothing bad would ever happen to Jason. 

He ran his fingers through Jason’s hair while he slept, index finger curling around a tight curl and springing it back out. Jason was his too small little boy with handfuls of gumption and a heart full of hope for the world around him. 

Bruce got up around six, and decided to get ready for the rest of his day. 

Alfred took his days off on sundays, Bruce didn’t ask what he did but he always left the man to his space. Normally he would spend these days working on paperwork, and Jason would catch up on homework. 

Jason popped his head into his office, taking off the headphone to his walkman. Lately Jason had taken to music, and plays that were recorded on tape. He’d been throwing himself into Bruce’s massive tape collection head first.

“B.” 

“Yes,” he looked up from his paperwork, and Jason grinned at him and ran over to his desk, smacking his palms against the mahogany.

“Let’s go out to eat, I want you to try this restaurant I found. It’s.. outstanding.” 

Bruce looked at his paperwork, then back at his son. Jason’s eyes were bright with anticipation and he was bouncing his leg nervously. 

He could always do paperwork when they got back home. 

“Sure, let’s go.” He got up and Jason pumped his fist into the air. “I’ll change clothes, you pick the car.” 

“Yes, yes. I’ll be waiting, can I drive it this time?” 

“Absolutely not.” 

“It was worth a shot,” Jason whistled and ran out of the study, his footsteps echoing down the stairs. 

Bruce got up and changed into a t-shirt and jeans, throwing on a Gotham Knight’s baseball cap and walking down into the garage. 

Jason was sitting in one of their lower grade cars, all black, a convertible. It was nice by all means, and Jason already had the top down and was messing around with the tape player. 

“What were you listening too?” Bruce asked, taking the driver’s seat and adjusting the mirrors.

“Fiddler on the Roof, I’m writing an essay about it and I felt like I’d get a better grip on it if I actually listened to it. I read the play like four times but.. Yeah. I once read that Fiddler on the Roof has a good metaphor for society but I’m trying to figure out that metaphor.”

“Hn. I’ll see if it’s coming into town soon.” 

“For real?” Jason sounded so.. Excited. 

“Of course, it’ll be something we do together. You can pick the seats,” he pulled out of the garage and off manor grounds, and they were driving down into Gotham before they knew it. 

Jason had been quiet, trying to get the cassette player to work but eventually giving up and tucking it away in his pocket. 

“Okay, so we’re going to somewhere on the outskirts of the city, you’re gonna make the next right here. You go straight after that and there’s gonna be an area where the road is broken, you’re gonna take a right and then it’s immediately to the left.” 

“Sounds cryptic.” 

“We’ve been worse places, you know that.” 

Bruce kissed his teeth, “Fair enough.” 

He drove silently, and every now and again when he looked at Jason he caught him staring wistfully into the distance, his hair blowing in the wind. He trusted Jason’s choice and after the turns he found himself parking in front of a gas station with several cars parked around it. 

“A gas station?” 

“It’s not, there’s a restaurant inside of the gas station,” Jason hopped out of the car and said, “I used to go here all the time when I was little.” 

Bruce didn’t comment on how Jason was still in fact, little. Instead he shut the car off and kept his head down as he followed Jason in. 

The restaurant was bursting with life, several people were already seated and a big man with an equally large moustache bellowed a “Hello” at them before running towards Jason. 

“Jason my boy,” he greeted and Jason opened his arms up to be scooped up in a hug. The man lifted him off the ground and Jason laughed. 

Bruce put his hands in his pockets and waited, hoping he wouldn’t immediately be caught as Bruce Wayne. 

The man put his hands against either side of Jason’s cheeks, squishing them, “Look at how big you’ve gotten, so strong. Who’s this big fellow?” 

Jason cleared his throat, and he and Bruce locked eyes. There were a hundred things Jason could say. 

Instead Jason wiggled into Bruce’s side, and made him hold his hand out. 

“He’s my dad.”

And that was truly unfair, Bruce’s heart grew four times its size and he felt like he was punched through his chest entirely. He squeezed Jason’s shoulder, fondly, and smiled down at him. Scratch smiled, he was positively beaming. 

It was the first time Jason had ever called him dad. 

“A friend of Jason’s is a friend of mine, sit down sit down. You’re a big man you must have a big appetite.” 

Jason giggled and Bruce elbowed him gently, but smiled at the man. 

“I sure do, I’ll eat anything you put in front of me.”

And he would, because that man was one of the few people in Jason’s life who truly cared for him.

**Author's Note:**

> helloo if you made it to the end i wanted to thank you for reading this chapter! there's only going to be two more pieces to this series before i write the sequel :> (which will hopefully be a longer piece of cohesive work sksksks) 
> 
> please follow my tumblr if you want updates, unfinished pieces, and a lot of headcanons @brunchyarts.tumblr.com
> 
> thank you so much for ur support!! your comments have been kind and ahh <33 Im full of love.


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